A dissident group is causing a stir in the global Anglican church by rejecting the ascent of Sarah Mullally, the incoming female, liberal Archbishop of Canterbury, and claiming that they have split from the Anglican Communion. But clergy and observers say the controversy isn’t new.

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a group of Anglican provinces comprised of Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, Brazil, Nigeria, Myanmar, Kenya, Alexandria (Egypt), Chile and groups like the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa and the Anglican Church in North America. The Most Rev. Laurent Mbanda, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, is its chairman and the face of the alliance.

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In an Oct. 3 letter, Mbanda denounces the appointment of Mullally, the church’s first female archbishop since it was established in 1534, as a violation of what he says is the Bible’s requirement of a male-only episcopacy. Her further supportive stance of same-sex rights is intolerable, Mbanda says.

“Bishop Mullally has repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality,” Mbanda states in the public letter which bears his signature alone. In it, he reiterated a statement from 2023 in which GAFCON declared that it no longer recognizes the Archbishop of Canterbury as an “Instrument of Communion” or the “first among equals” of global Primates.

In another letter on Oct. 16, Mbanda states that GAFCON’s primates have reformed the Anglican Communion by creating their own entity called the Global Anglican Communion, rejecting........

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